Video Blog: Advice For Startups, From A Startup

Video Transcription

Title Slide: Advice to Entrepreneurs | With Luella Schmidt

Question #1: What is one thing every start up should have?

Luella: Well, of course, the one thing that we recommend is that you definitely have a budget. You know, the most important thing for a startup is product and market. Make sure you have that, obviously, or you wouldn’t be planning a startup. But, in order to implement and execute the plan, you’ve got to have a budget and a plan for how you’re going to get it done.

Question #2: What do you think is the most common mistake startups make?

Luella: The number one mistake is probably lack of planning. And I also think maybe entrepreneurs, it’s sometimes hard for them to ask for help and get other peoples’ opinions, especially if they’re particularly visionary. The business community as a whole is actually extremely willing to help, and bouncing ideas off of other people, especially people who have done it before, other industry experts, is really helpful.

Question #3: What can start ups do to improve cashflow?

Luella: So, what startups can do to improve cashflow is basically just run as lean as you can. There’s a lot of popular literature out on this topic right now. The Lean Start Up is a very popular book. And different ways to do that are, of course, outsourcing and trying to use more part-time help, trying to do just-in-time hiring versus building management teams. That’s one of the things we commonly see. Startups, especially after their first round, will often build a little too much management and not enough workers, so that’s a good tip.